Cemetary

Cemetary (1989-1997, 2004-2005) is a Death Metal band from Borås, Sweden.

C

emetary, a gothicdeath metal act, was founded by Mattias Lodmalm (vocals/guitar). Over time, the membership expanded to include Christian Saarinen (guitar), Zrinko Curljak (bass) and Juha Sievers (drums). They secured a record deal in 1992 after two well-received demos, Incarnation Of Morbidity and Articulus Mortiis.

Their debut album, An Evil Shade Of Grey (1992), was a competent but unremarkable death metal album. It also boasted their first membership change with Anton Hedberg replacing Christian Saarinen on guitar. Godless Beauty (1993) saw them evolve beyond simply death metal, with fresh new ideas coming to play, including overdubbed samples of horror film dialogue, as well as gothic musical styles. It resulted in a powerful depiction of depression and suicide. Much of its flavor was the result of new band membership with Lodmalm replacing everyone but himself, now featuring Anders Iwers (ex-Tiamat; guitar), Tomas Josefsson (bass) and Markus Nordberg on drums. Black Vanity (1994) saw this style continued. Black Vanity also saw a membership change with Anders Iwers replacing Anton, Thomas Joseffson replaced Zrinko and Markus Nordberg replaced Zuha.

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The brilliant 1996 effort, Sundown, introduced black metal elements into their music. Last Confessions (1997) would be their swansong with founder Mathias Lodmalm disbanding the operation and forming Sundown shortly later. The only other work published with the original name Cemetary was the posthumous 1998 compilation "best of..." titled Sweetest Tragedies.

Sundown (the band), a merger between ex-members of Cemetary and Tiamat, would be a short lived experience featuring Mathias Lodmalm (ex-Cemetary; vocals/guitar), Herman Engstrom (ex-Glimmer; guitar), Andreas Karlsson (ex-Glimmer; bass) and Christian Silver (drums) (original members Johnny Hagel (ex-Tiamat; bass/keyboards) and Andreas Johansson (guitar) were replaced after the first album) that yielded two albums, Design 19 (1998) and Glimmer (1999) in much the same style as Cemetary, with him then forming a similar styled outfit Cemetary 1213.

Seven years would pass before the members of Cemetary decided to give it another go in 2004 to release what would become their final album, Phantasma. In May 2005, Mathias Lodmalm posted a message at the band's website announcing that he was leaving the scene for good because of dissatisfaction with the people he did business with.

Footnote: Cemetary 1213 (the 1213 suffix is in reference to the Cemetary song 1213 - Transgalactica, and was added to signal a rebirth as opposed to reforming the old band, although the addition of 1213 may be more for legal reasons). The line-up featured Mathias Lodmalm (ex-Cemetary/ex-Sundown; vocals/guitar), Manne Engström (guitar/vocals), Vesa K. (bass) and Christian Silver (ex-Sundown; drums). Their first album, The Beast Divine (2000), featured a new chapter for Ladmalm with heavier guitars and a more upbeat mood than his past works. Since his departure with 'Century Media' and dabbling in non-Metal projects, the future of the act is in question.